Horse farm needs tractor

[jeff9366]

Sadly we're in Indiana.

I suggest adding your Indiana location to your T-B-N PROFILE.

 

[Torvy]

To whomever said ignore the Korean tractors: ignorant, possibly racist hogwash.

There are not any bad manufacturers. Only a few 'bad' models, but all brands have lemons mixed in.

At your price points, the Kubota and JD models are a bit light in the shorts.

Better options for the rational, er 'budget conscious' among us:

KIOTI CK3510 or 4010?
LS MT140HE
TYM 4215H or T394H
(Some will have other HP options on the same frame)

The best regardless of cost is probably the Yanmar, but they are pricey like JD, but without many dealer options.

Mahindra is harder to tie down. They don't make all of their own stuff. Quality qill be more variable by model with them. TYM has made some of their compacts. Supposedly, Mahindra is moving more in house.

Indiana has Rural King. TYM makes all of their tractors at present. Drawbacks for RK are that the store support is really variable by store. Some are reportedly awesome and others horrible. Since they don't actually manufacture, support may wane if they don't continue with TYM at some future point. The counter argument is that they are almost 100% direct ports of TYM models, so you could get parts directly from TYM.

Horse work is tricky from a size standpoint, especially since you want to use a 5' cutter, too. If you want to get into stalls, the dimensions are more important than would be otherwise. That is really dependent on your specific situation vis-a-vis space and process.

Good luck, hope this helps...oh yeah, I second the opinion on good dealer. They can be quite valuable.

 

[rScotty]

Sadly we're in Indiana.

Ah shucks. To a Westerner a trip from Tennessee to Indiana looks like next door.
In big sky country we often drive all day to get to a good fishing or just to ride with friends.
It's a different type of country - dry and cold much of the year.

 

[woolyAcres]

A couple years ago we added a Bobcat CT2025 to the farm. It's been a great addition. It's got a loader powerful enough to clean the barn as well as move (small dry) round bales when needed. It runs a 5' brush hog without trouble but we don't use that for mowing heavy stuff. We just it for small brush and for cleaning up the edges and corners of pastures after the cows have been moved to a now spot. Over the last 2 years it's probably recorded the most hours of any machine on the farm (~400hours). But we've got several larger machines for all the heavier lifting. It would never work as the only machine on the farm but it does a lot of loader work (grapple for brush cleaning, manure clean-out, brush hogging), runs a 5' tiller, box blading and pulling small trailer or hay wagon on flat ground. Plus tons of yard work/mulch. Simple and easy to operate.

It has sufficient power for its size/weight, it's HST, and it's small enough to get into tight spaces. All-in-all a very good machine. I will say I really do dislike the loader control valve on this machine however, it's not at all smooth. The valve on our New Holland TC45 is buttery smooth. The one on the bobcat is very jerky even for decent operators. . ~400 hours in 2 years with no problems whatsoever. There are folks out there who have turned up the fuel on these 25HP machines to get them up to 30ish. Would be handy but I don't think necessary for what we do with it.

I think we paid about $19,500 2+ years ago (pretty base model other than HST). It's something that would probably still fit your budget. We picked the bobcat because a) it was available whereas the Kioti wasn't b) the seat is a bit different, and c) it has a horn. I didn't actually get to test out a Kioti when shopping- just none around. I think it's the same loader valve but I would trade the adjustable seat and horn for a smoother loader. I would also prefer the R14 tires which were not an option on the Bobcat at the time we purchased but is/was for the Kioti.

Don't underestimate what you can accomplish with a tractor this size. Sure, having a 40+ hp machine is great but it's not always an option.

 

[arrow]

Sadly we're in Indiana.

So HT, if you're anything like me, every opinion is a valuable resource even if not pertinent to your situation. The reason is , every opinion leads you closer and closer to a decision based on your needs.
You are at a price point. You know the size of your operation. You know what you'd like to do w your tractor. So you ask questions and get all kinds of answers but every contribution gets sifted down to when you finally hit upon YOUR answer.

Brand is meaningless to me. Color just as non pertinent.
Usage should depend on your size of operation and so should your size tractor.
No one brand is gonna do a simple task better than another.
One size tractor will however.
HP is pertinent to size of implement and in your case :cutting. So depends on how fast you wanna do this. More hp does this faster mostly because you're able to use larger or wider in this case.
As you are not pulling or pushing or lifting much, weight is not as pertinent for you.
Any tractor in the 25-40 hp rating will do what you want either slower or faster.

Because I work for a Mahindra dealership, I do know that your 25K will buy a brand new 1626 that set up with front end loader and weighted tires, can approach 4000 lbs and lift 1550 lbs for loader and close to 2400 lbs with 3 point.
This tractor is made in Japan by Mitsubishi and has an excellent track record.
Also, DO NOT consider this brand unless you have a dealership close by.

I have the old number one of these (3016) and have no trouble with a 6' brush cutter. If you let your grass get to 2 ft high, then I'd suggest a 5 footer.

 

[WinterDeere]

To whomever said ignore the Korean tractors: ignorant, possibly racist hogwash.

I didn't say it, but I agree with it, for reasons that have nothing to do with racism. Perhaps you could call me ignorant, that's possible.

The perception is that JD and Kubota offer:

1. Less loss on eventual resale, so long-term, less costly.
2. Better availability of parts and accessories.
3. Better long-term duration of parts availability, as the thing ages out of production.
4. More mature designs, small secondary but still important things, that have developed over decades of refinement.

You could argue on point 4, but as long as points 1 and 3 have any merit, what's the point?

Where's my pot stirrer?

 

[TheMan419]

We own an 18 acre horse farm in Indiana. We are in Northern Indiana so pool table flat.

7 years or so ago I bought a New Holland Boomer 24. It is in the shop (again). We are debating replacing it. I would NOT get a 24 hp machine again. I would def go to 35 - 40 hp. The Boomer did everything I asked of it. 5 foot bush hog, move manure, run the tiller (this was really hard on it) etc.

I just do not think it is enough machine. I think we are in the shop because we have run it too hard. Much like someone up thread stated, they have a leak that the tractor is going to have to be pulled apart to fix. We have the same issue. That is going to be a $2600 repair. I am not at all mechanical so I cannot fix those things myself.

While I like my NH dealer, we also have good JD and Kubota dealers in the immediate area. MF is next county over so I do not want to go that far.

Just googling now we have a bobcat dealer too that seems to carry their compact tractors. I'll have to check them out!

 

[2manyrocks]

The difficulty for any buyer is figuring out which tractors will have the overall best long term reliability with the fewest repair costs.

It wasn't so long ago that Japanese car makers took over a majority of the US car market when consumers realized that they were making better cars than the US car makers. The engines on US cars would have oil on the blocks and be dripping oil on the ground at 50k miles where the Japanese models would still be clean at 100k because the Japanese were better at building engines to closer tolerances and paying strict attention to quality control. If they saw a problem, they fixed it in the next generation so that overall, their reliability was light years ahead of US cars.

I've owned a 1980's Yanmar 226d for probably 30 years. Just turned 1,000 hours with hardly any real problems in all these years. Fuel efficient. Runs smoothly. In some ways, it is built better than my L2501, in my personal opinion.

To me, it remains to be proven which other brands are up to the same quality standards as Yanmar and Kubota.

It's not really about where the tractors are made. The real questions are whether the tractors are well engineered, well manufactured, and well supported with parts and service.

A lot of fluff marketing by youtube influencers does not prove long term reliability.

 

[big bubba]

the OP needs to make an informed decision on the size/hp machine 1st. budget & make tractor can follow. as long as he stays w/top 5 manufacturers, he'll be fine
like a lot of things, form follows function

 

[Tractorable]

You may be better off going for a lightly used machine.

Inflation on new equipment has driven prices very high and interest rates are high too. For a long time, lightly used equipment has cost almost as much as new so it didn’t make sense to buy used when you could get better financing and a warranty on a new machine for not much more cost. However, that’s changing now. Used equipment values are staying flat while new equipment costs keep going up so the delta in savings is much larger now than it’s been in recent years.

I’ve been seeing some pretty good deals on lightly used equipment recently. Examples: $32K for a 2019 Kioti 5310SE Cab with 6ft bush hog, $27K for a 60hp Yanmar YT359, and a few others. Compare lightly used to new and you may be surprised at what you can save in this high inflation economy.

Keep your eyes peeled on Tractorhouse and don’t be afraid of the Korean brands. They make strong well designed equipment.